2025 Working with the Arizona Court of Appeals

Timothy Berg Related Seminars and Products

General Counsel

Fennemore Craig PC

Tim Berg is a shareholder and director at Fennemore where he is chair of the Firm’s appellate practice
group. He practices in the areas of civil appeals, public records law, public utility law and Arizona
constitutional law. He also serves as the Firm’s General Counsel regularly addressing ethics
issues. Prior to joining Fennemore, he clerked for Richard H. Chambers, chief judge of the United
States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

James B Morse Related Seminars and Products

Hon. James B. Morse Jr. was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One by Governor
Douglas Ducey and began service on the Court of Appeals on November 6, 2017. Prior to his
appointment, Judge Morse spent nearly 10 years with the United States Attorney’s Office for the District
of Arizona, where he served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Organized Crime and Drug
Enforcement Task Force, a Deputy Section Chief and Section Chief in the Southwest Border Crimes
Unit, and as the Government Ethics Advisor. Judge Morse also worked in the Maricopa County
Attorney’s Office where he served as a Deputy County Attorney and as an Assistant Bureau
Chief. Judge Morse previously worked as a Law Clerk for United States District Judge James A.
Teilborg, and as an associate at Snell & Wilmer in Phoenix, and Baker & Botts in Dallas.
Judge Morse graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude, in Political Science from
Arizona State University in 1991. He earned his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Virginia in
1995.

Honorable Randall H Warner Related Seminars and Products

Maricopa County Superior Court

Maricopa County Superior Court

JUDGE RANDALL H. WARNER was appointed Judge of the Superior Court of Arizona in August 2007. He
has served on civil, criminal, family, and juvenile court assignments. Judge Warner was the Civil
Presiding Judge in Maricopa County from June 2015 through June 2018, and presided over a Civil
Complex Calendar for four years. Before joining the bench, Judge Warner had an appellate and
commercial litigation practice. At the start of his career, he clerked for Arizona Supreme Court Justice
Thomas A. Zlaket. Judge Warner teaches and writes frequently on the law-fact distinction, civil practice
issues, effective advocacy, and case management.

Eileen Dennis GilBride Related Seminars and Products

Partner

Jones Skelton & Hochuli PLC

Eileen Gilbride graduated from the Cornell Law School and clerked on the Arizona Court of Appeals
and Arizona Supreme Court. In her 40-plus year career, Eileen has handled more than 500 appeals in
the state and federal courts, resulting in over 80 published decisions. Substantive areas of her appeals
include constitutional, contracts, torts, insurance coverage and defense, employment, municipal and
school defense, civil rights, professional malpractice, legislative, administrative, personal injury and
wrongful death, family law, property rights, and trusts. Eileen is a past Chair of the State Bar Appellate
Practice Section, a past Chair of the Arizona Supreme Court Committee on Examinations, and is
recognized in Best Lawyers in America, Corporate Counsel Top Lawyers, Arizona’s Finest Lawyers,
Arizona’s Best Lawyers, Martindale Hubbell’s Bar Register of Preeminent Women Lawyers, as a
PHOENIX Magazine Top Lawyer, and by Chambers USA as a Band 3 lawyer in Appellate Law.

Garye L Vasquez Related Seminars and Products

Chief Judge Vásquez was appointed to the Court of Appeals in 2005 and took his seat on the court
February 1, 2006. He became Chief Judge of Division Two on July 1, 2019 and completed his five-year
term on June 30, 2024. Prior to his appointment, Judge Vásquez was in private practice in Casa Grande
for twenty-one years. He has an A.G.S. from Central Arizona College, a B.S. in Justice Studies from
Arizona State University, and a law degree from the University of Arizona. Judge Vásquez currently
serves on the Arizona Supreme Court’s Commission on Judicial Performance Review. He served on the
Arizona Judicial Council (2019-2024), the Task Force on the Rules of Procedure for Special Actions,
the Commission on Technology, the Executive Council of the Arizona Bar Association’s Appellate
Practice Section, and the Supreme Court Special Code of Judicial Conduct Workgroup. He is a former
member of the Morris K. Udall Inn of Court (2014-2019).

David B Gass Related Seminars and Products

Judge

CHIEF JUDGE DAVID BRUCE GASS grew up in central Pennsylvania but spent a year taking classes in Chihuahua,
Mexico. He served as a law clerk to the Honorable Ruth V. McGregor before joining the Phoenix law
firm of Lewis and Roca, LLP. He spent seven sessions working as Counsel at the Arizona House of
Representatives, before going to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
In 2009, Judge Gass was appointed to the Superior Court in Maricopa County. He served on all four
major assignments. He sat on the Arizona Bar Association’s Civil Jury Instruction Committee and
served as President of the Arizona Judges’ Association. He and Judge Pamela Svoboda established the
STRENGTH Court in Maricopa County. STRENGTH Court works with victims of sex trafficking who
are in the juvenile justice system.
In 2019, Judge Gass was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One. He began serving as
the Vice Chief Judge in June 2021. He is a member of the Arizona Supreme Court Commission on
Diversity, Equality, and Justice. He chaired the 2022 Child Support Guidelines Review Subcommittee.
Judge Gass was awarded the 2005 Arizona State University College of Law Alumni Association
recognition for outstanding service, the 2014 Michael D. Ryan Award for Judicial Excellence from the
State Bar of Arizona Public Lawyers Section, the 2018 Pete Dunn Above and Beyond Award as
outstanding ambassador of the Judges in Arizona, and the 2018 Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law
Judicial Officer of the Year. The State Bar of Arizona awarded him its 2020 Diversity and Inclusion
Leadership Award. In 2021, the Arizona Supreme Court’s Committee on Judicial Education and 6
Training awarded him the Excellence in Education Award.
Judge Gass is on the Arizona Town Hall Training Committee and has worked with Arizona Anytown
Youth Leadership.
Judge Gass is a member of the LGBTQ+ community. He focuses and speaks on diversity and inclusion
issues. He has been active in many related projects. Several are listed here. He developed a training
module to unpack and demystify the judicial application process to encourage diversity in Arizona’s
courts. He also developed an undergraduate internship program at the Arizona Court of Appeals,
Division One to give diverse undergraduate students experience working in the courts and to encourage
them to go to law school.
Most notable, Judge Gass felt strongly that Arizona should officially recognize the Fred Korematsu Day
of Civil Liberties and the Constitution so that we never forget the wrongs done to persons of Japanese
descent and their families. He spent five years making it a reality so we always remember our
constitution and our civil liberties are fragile and require our constant attention.
And he saves stray dogs on the side.

Hon. Cynthia J Bailey Related Seminars and Products

Judge

Arizona Court of Appeals, Division 1

Hon. Cynthia Bailey was appointed to the Court of Appeals in April 2020. From 2010 until her
appointment, Judge Bailey served on the Maricopa County Superior Court, presiding over cases in the
criminal, family, and civil divisions. As a practicing lawyer, in addition to a broad private practice,
Judge Bailey worked in both the executive and legislative branches of government. She served as the
Rules Attorney for the Arizona State Senate, worked as a criminal prosecutor in Maricopa County, and
as a lawyer representing Maricopa County in the mental health court. Judge Bailey received her B.S.
and J.D. from Arizona State University.

Ann B Ching Related Seminars and Products

Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Arizona State University

Ann Ching is a Clinical Professor of Law at Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Prior to this appointment, Professor Ching served as Ethics Counsel for the State Bar of Arizona (2016-2019) and Assistant Professor of Law at Pepperdine University (2013-2015). Professor Ching began her legal career in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps (2001-2012), where she achieved the rank of Major and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for her service in Iraq.

Outside of teaching, Professor Ching serves on the Arizona Supreme Court Ethics Advisory Committee, the State Bar of Arizona Ethics Advisory Group, and as a judge pro tempore for the East Valley Regional Veterans Court. Professor Ching frequently speaks and writes about ethics, legal writing, and appellate practice. Her book Contemporary Appellate Advocacy (Carolina Academic Press) will be published in 2025.

Professor Ching is a graduate of the University of Arizona (B.A.), the University of North Carolina (J.D.), the Judge Advocate General’s School of the Army (LL.M.), and Pepperdine University (M.B.A.).

David J Euchner Related Seminars and Products

David Euchner is the appellate unit supervisor and resource counsel of the Pima County Public
Defender’s Office, professor of practice in criminal law and criminal procedure at the University of
Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, and the co-author of the Arizona Criminal Practice Manual
published by Thomson Reuters. In 2014 he was the president of Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice,
the state affiliate of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and he was recently elected
to be AACJ’s President in 2026, the first to repeat in that role. He has served as chair or co-chair of
AACJ’s amicus and rules committee since 2011.
Dave has acted as counsel, for a party or for an amicus, in cases resulting in more than 100 published
opinions, and he has participated in more than 80 oral arguments, evenly divided between the Arizona
Supreme Court and Arizona Court of Appeals. He currently and has previously served on several
committees of the State Bar of Arizona and the Arizona Supreme Court tasked with rewriting court rules
and jury instructions. He received the Outstanding Performance Award from the Arizona Public
Defender Association in 2016, the Vanguard Leadership Award (now named the Larry Hammond
Leadership Award) from AACJ in 2017, and the Jack Williams Appellate Achievement Award from
AACJ in 2021. He earned his BA and JD degrees from Rutgers University.

Michael F Kelly Related Seminars and Products

Judge Kelly was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division Two, in 2022. Before his appointment, Judge Kelly was a partner at the Hollingsworth Kelly Law Firm from 2010 to 2022, where his practice focused on civil litigation and trial work. Prior to that, Judge Kelly served as a prosecuting attorney at the Pima County Attorney’s Office where he handled homicide and violent crime cases from 2004 to 2009. During his career as an attorney, Judge Kelly tried more than 100 civil and criminal jury trials. A native Tucsonan, he graduated magna cum laude from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance in 2001, and then received his law degree from the University of Arizona in 2004. Judge Kelly was a longtime volunteer attorney with Step Up to Justice, and served on the Board of Directors for both Southern Arizona Legal Aid and the Tucson Village Farm before his appointment to the bench. He currently serves on the Arizona Supreme Court Commission on Technology.

Jennifer M Perkins Related Seminars and Products

Arizona Court of Appeals - Division One

Hon. Jennifer M. Perkins began service on the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One, on October
30, 2017. At the time of her appointment by Governor Douglas Ducey, Judge Perkins was Assistant
Solicitor General for the State of Arizona.
Judge Perkins was born in Portales, New Mexico, and primarily raised in Albuquerque. She attended the
prestigious Albuquerque Academy from 1988-1995, before moving to Washington D.C. to attend the
Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University as a National Merit Scholar.
Therafter, she relocated again to Dallas, Texas, and earned her juris doctor from the SMU Dedman
School of Law, graduating cum laude in 2002.
Judge Perkins started her career at the law firm of Browning & Peifer (now Peifer, Hanson, & Mullins)
in Albuquerque, New Mexico. While there, she litigated complex commercial matters including class
action plaintiff and defense work, and assisted with employment and contract litigation. In 2003, the
judge accompanied the Honorable James O. Browning in transitioning to the federal district court bench,
serving as his first law clerk.
After her clerkship, Judge Perkins moved to Arizona to work for the Institute for Justice, Arizona
Chapter, a public interest law firm. She spent five years with IJ-AZ litigating civil rights cases in
Arizona and across the country. In 2009, the judge became Disciplinary Counsel for the Arizona
Commission on Judicial Conduct, where she reviewed and prosecuted ethics complaints against state
court judges throughout Arizona. After five years serving the state in this capacity, Judge Perkins
entered private practice by joining Mandel Young, an appellate law firm in Phoenix. While there, she
worked on state and federal appeals involving a wide range of legal subjects, including complex
business disputes, property rights, judicial ethics, and personal injury matters.
In January 2015, Judge Perkins joined the Office of the Arizona Attorney General to serve as the first
Assistant Solicitor General; in that capacity, she was responsible for oversight of Attorney General
Opinions and served as ethics counsel to the entire office. In addition to these two primary roles, the
judge assisted on a variety of matters including trial and appellate litigation of election-related matters;
federal appellate litigation with the Federalism Unit; state criminal appeals; and drafting amicus briefs
on behalf of Arizona in state and federal courts.

Michael S Catlett Related Seminars and Products

HON MICHAEL S. CATLETT was appointed to the Court of Appeals in 2022. From 2020 to 2023, Judge Catlett worked at the Arizona Attorney General’s Office as Deputy Solicitor General and Chief Counsel of Special Litigation, representing the State of Arizona in trial and appellate courts. Prior to joining the Attorney General’s Office, Judge Catlett was a commercial and appellate litigator in private practice with the law firms of Quarles & Brady LLP (Associate 2010-2014, Partner 2014-2020) and Osborn Maledon, P.A. (Associate 2007-2010). After graduating from law school, Judge Catlett served a one-year clerkship (2006-2007) with the Hon. Paul J. Kelly, Jr., United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Judge Catlett received his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in finance from Arizona State University and his law degree summa cum laude from the University of Arizona College of Law, where he was Editor-In-Chief of the Arizona Law Review.

Jeffrey Louis Sklar Related Seminars and Products

Hon. Jeffrey L. Sklar graduated from the University of Arizona and the University of Southern
California Gould School of Law. After graduating law school in 2007, he returned to Arizona to clerk
for Justice Scott Bales of the Arizona Supreme Court. He then began work as an associate at the Los
Angeles law firm of Irell & Manella.
Judge Sklar returned to Arizona in 2010 to work at the Tucson office of what was then known as Lewis
& Roca, where he remained until 2021, when Gov. Doug Ducey appointed him to the Arizona Superior
Court in Pima County. On the Superior Court, Judge Sklar served rotations on both the civil bench and
family bench. In July 2022, he was appointed as presiding judge of the family bench. He remained as
presiding family judge until December 2022, when Governor Ducey appointed him to the Arizona Court
of Appeals.
Judge Sklar lives in Tucson with his wife and three children.

Eric Michael Fraser Related Seminars and Products

Osborn Maledon PA

Eric M. Fraser is a partner and co-chair of the appellate practice at Osborn Maledon, where his practice
focuses on major civil appeals. He coauthors a monthly column in Arizona Attorney magazine covering
civil appeals, coedits the azapp.com blog, and contributes to SCOTUSblog. He is a Ninth Circuit
Appellate Lawyer Representative and a former chair of the State Bar of Arizona’s Appellate Practice
Section. Eric received his J.D. and M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and his B.A. in Physics from
Pomona College. Before joining private practice, Eric clerked for Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg on the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Alexander Westbrook Samuels Related Seminars and Products

Alexander Samuels is the Principal Deputy Solicitor General at the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
In that role, he helps oversee all of the Office’s civil and criminal appellate work, as well as high-profile
civil litigation in state and federal trial courts. He regularly handles cases in the Ninth Circuit and
Arizona Supreme Court, and has also argued in the United States Supreme Court. Before joining the
Attorney General’s Office, Alex worked as an Assistant United States Attorney, with a focus on
prosecuting violent crimes in Arizona’s tribal communities, and in private practice at Perkins Coie. He
served as a law clerk for the Honorable Andrew D. Hurwitz at the Arizona Supreme Court and at the
Ninth Circuit. He is a graduate of Arizona State University and Harvard Law School.

Emily Ward Related Seminars and Products

Emily Ward is an equity director/partner at Fennemore focusing on business litigation and appeals.
After graduating Summa Cum Laude from the University of Arizona College of Law, Emily clerked for
Justice Brutinel on the Arizona Supreme Court before completing a federal district court clerkship for
U.S. District Court Judge David Alan Ezra in San Antonio, Texas. Today, Emily litigates high-stakes
cases for governmental and business clients on a wide variety of practice areas including constitutional
issues, as well as contract and commercial real estate disputes. She is recognized as a Super Lawyers®
Rising Star in Business Litigation, Chambers USA, Leading Lawyers for Business Up and Coming-
Appellate; Best Lawyers® Ones to Watch, Commercial Litigation and AZ State Bar Pro Bono Attorney
of the Year. She was also featured in the PHOENIX Magazine as a Top Lawyer in Business Litigation
and was recently selected as Phoenix Business Journal’s 40 Under 40.

Luci Danielle Davis Related Seminars and Products

Luci D. Davis serves as Senior Litigation Counsel in the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, Office of
the Solicitor General, working on litigation and appeals involving a range of constitutional and statutory
issues. Luci graduated summa cum laude from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona
State University and then clerked for the Honorable David G. Campbell of the U.S. District Court for the
District of Arizona and the Honorable Andrew D. Hurwitz of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit. Before joining the Solicitor General’s Office, Luci was an associate at Perkins Coie LLP, where
her practice included complex business and environmental disputes and earned her recognition in Best
Lawyers® Ones to Watch for Appellate Practice and Commercial Litigation.

Adam Unikowsky Related Seminars and Products

Adam Unikowsky is a partner in the Appellate & Supreme Court practice group at Jenner & Block in
Washington, DC. He handles cases in numerous subject matter areas, including administrative law,
patent law, and federal Indian law. He has argued 12 cases in the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as
numerous cases in federal courts of appeals, federal district courts, and state supreme courts. He writes
a newsletter on AI in law and other legal issues, available at https://adamunikowsky.substack.com/.
Adam graduated from Harvard Law School and clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia and Judge Douglas H.
Ginsburg on the D.C. Circuit.

Joseph N Roth Related Seminars and Products

Osborn Maledon PA

Joseph N. Roth is a partner at Osborn Maledon, where his practice focuses on appeals, government
investigations, and complex civil litigation. He was a longtime coauthor of a monthly column in
Arizona Attorney magazine covering civil appeals and a co-editor of the azapp.com blog. Joe frequently
represents clients on appeal before state and federal court in civil and regulatory matters. Joe received
his J.D. from Columbia Law School and his B.A. from the University of Arizona. After law school, Joe
clerked for Justice Scott Bales of the Arizona Supreme Court.